The ringing of gunfire drowned out all other sound, lungs filling with carbon monoxide as the fires across the ruined structured raged after Anzens moble armored units unleashed a a saturation bombing of the region during the first wave.

He hid under the corpses hoping the corporate shock troopers didn't find him and execute him with any of the other survivors.

Nothing personal, they where just following the orders of the regime that hired them to help invade the city.

Was not the first time or the last, they changed colors, different corporation or PMC but they always brought death in their wake.

The debris was pulled away as someone moved the corpses away noticing the boy breathing, too frightened to speak or beg for his life and instead she simply offered him a hand. Her blue eyes showed no emotion but instead purpose, righteousness.

2158

Expelled from college at last, not because Ash Dical wasn't smart or couldn't handle the materials of the course, far from it but he was combative, always had an axe to grind and on this day he clipped a rather bigoted students head with a chair.

In fact he hit him at the right angle to knock a few of his fellow students teeth out.

His parents where furious when he returned home that day, so much money saved over the years to put him through that DataSec course in hopes that Ash could get a 3C licence which could land a nice lifelong career at R.G Lockheed or even Harwell. Really one of the high end corporations so he could make more money to support them in their later years.

It was like static inside their head with everything going on as he sighed listening to the noise downstairs.

Always the same, parents seeing their children as ether property or groomed into being a life long carer for them instead of asking what their own children desired in life.

Shouting downstairs, Ash already had to deal with his fathers rage, not like his mother had handled things any better “Twenty two and I feel like I'm still a slave of my family.” Ash grimaced looking in the mirror seeing an image that didn't reflect them.

Never feeling seen, not by family or so called friends.

Surely they had to have picked up on the air by now? It was so obvious right? They felt so cowardly not just taking the plunge and owning their own truth.

Ash's eyes turned to the lower drawer in the bedroom, a stash of clothing collected over the years, only ever having a chance to wear them when everyone was away...Shame was such a terrible engine wasn't it? It was enough, it couldn't go on like this “If I stay here I'll just rot away, I'll keep doing what they want of me until they wear me down into a husk, someone who won't even be able to dream of getting out.” He clenched his fist.

They packed just enough for what they would need a bolted downstairs as their old man was in the way, built like a brick shit house “Where do you think you're going? You have a lot to answer for you little shit!” He pointed.

Ash kicked the living room table over as it threw the old man down, then jumping over him “Bite me!” They jeered as they bolted towards the front door.

Watching her husband climbing to his feet, Jennifer Dical chased after her son “You get back here, how dare you assault your father!” She screamed from the front door as Ash jumped into the old Syead model Skagra black car, it was a piece of shit but it would get Ash to the next city hopefully.

“Little bastards got my keys!” Henry Dical shouted out giving chase as his own child locked the car doors, inserting the key and switching the vehicles fusion engine on as they backed up knocking down a bunch of garden ornaments “Get back here with my god damn car!” Henry screamed causing some neighbours to stare.

Ignoring him, Ash drove onto the road and accelerated into the distance, leaving the suburbs of Nolensville behind.

The months bled into each other as Mia lay in her cramped cupboard that had been converted into a makeshift bedroom. The smell was pretty bad at the commune but she was happy to finally be living as herself, through now she was in a new prison where nobody really got along all that well with the only connecting tissue being politics and being part of the same in group.

Even then you had to agree with every single stance the renter believed in or you where the wrong kind of 'good person' and potentially a reactionary in the waiting if not corrected. It was so much noise like endless static buzzing away.

By politics, they got nothing meaningful done beyond discourse regarding children's animation on the Metanet.

Truly the corporations must have been shaking in their boots.

Mia started packing what little possessions she had as the rest of the flat was asleep “I'm tired of Lily's shit, maybe I can try and find some work up north and get my own rental.” She quietly murmured while bagging her things up and slinging the black bag over her shoulder as she walked to the front foot.

She gently shut it and went downstairs to the street level.

Might have been enough money to get a shuttle but she would have to walk the rest “Where am I even going to stay tonight?” She turned her head looking back, tempted by the thought of giving up and returning to the commune.

Sure it was miserable but at least she would have a roof over her head but then why even bother leaving her parents in the first place? That fire, that motivation? There was an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu but then again it was not the first time she had been around these kinds of situations, these types of people and groups.

Of course one look at the sink full of unwashed dishes that lay there for days, rubbish in plastic bags by the chair and the scent of decay covered up by glitter was enough to make Mia take the plunge one more time as they headed out the front down and down the stairs.

Three days had passed as what was left of Mia's saved funds had finally run dry as she managed to make it out to Anaheim in California which was like a blast furnace with the heat made worse by the massive miles of concrete, metal, glass and factories that had filled up the city over the decades.

It was one of the states that took the hardest damage during the climate crisis of the 21^st century with a good chunk of the south underwater; compounded by countless other crisis’s caused by past generations.

“I'm going to get sunburn if I'm out too long damn it...” She whined to herself watching the mobs of people going back and fourth through the busy streets.

Static in her vision, maybe it was an effect of the bright sun glazing against her line of sight.

No money to stay one more night at the pod centre or to get something to eat “Really don't want to go to a shelter, that crap is skid row. Could look on the net, see if another activist group might put me up but I don't want to get into another shit show situation.” She pulled her palms down her cheeks in frustration.

“Oh do forgive me, I couldn't help but overhear your situation.” A cutesy voice from behind Mia captured her attention.

Turning to face the one who spoke she saw a lady with thick black hair with the back done up in a long fluffy ponytail. Upon further inspection she had a white blouse on, loose with a long skirt and sunglasses which was clearly designed to be summer office wear.

Mia felt embarrassed as she took a step back “Hey, it's not right to eavesdrop on people, asshat!” She called out and pointed while showing she looked a bit shaky betraying her confidence.

The girl leaned forward bent over with her hands behind her back as she smiled “You where talking to yourself a bit loudly, it was hard not to overhear you.” She chuckled.

Deep cringe sunk in as Mia pulled down on her own cheeks “Bleh, yeah my bad.” She puffed feeling called out.

“I'm AS-179, it's a pleasure to meet you! I work for MAID, sure you've heard of our great and wonderful corporation.” The woman smiled widely.

Mia had heard of Machine artificial intelligence development or better known by M.A.I.D and it creeped her out from what little she saw of them over the years. All identical looking, their brands negging at the back of your mind as if trying to adjust your tastes slowly and it worked on some people too.

Before she could even respond this office lady had already cut her off before she could utter another word “Oh you look like you like anime! I love anime so many of us around the office love anime too! Core-robo? You like Core-robo? I like that one too, we love giant robots you know, we even have them for real, ever wanted to pilot one like in the animes? Well at MAID you could you know, teehee, sorry I ramble too much.” She giggled trying to appear more human and relatable to hook this mark in.

Mia had never wanted a corporate job but circumstances had changed along with the black hole of her parents no longer being part of the equation which was a load off her decision making but joining up with an establishment megacorp was still a moral hole she was not keen to go down but the notion of getting to pilot a mobile armor was tempting even if she knew it was just a cult recruitment tactic to be more personal.

Plus she badly needed money, it was take a chance on this, do a few years work then bail which was better than bottoming out on the streets of an unknown city “Hold on through, don't you need enlist for a corpo or state army for a few years before they even let you get in one of those machines? I'm not really the type even through I admit I'd love to get in the cockpit of one of those things.” Mia rubbed her ear mulling the decision over.

Mia was not one for the military, brutal drill sergeants screaming at you while demanding you give them five hundred push ups, hazing and being surrounded by jarheads as they called them in the old days.

The office lady took out a glowing pen as she tapped her touch pad “We have state of the art training programs, nothing like some of other forces, we can even take the most unfit and mold them into the perfect material for SecruityTech.” She grinned bringing up some details on her portable device.

“Fitness adjustment programs, survival 07, MechOps Class C2 proficiency training, Sneaking mission 60, Weapons 80, Advanced field medicine, it can all be done through digital reality grafting now.” She explained.

This felt like a stupid decision, Mia thought but the alternative being the street? Having to hopefully get odd jobs to get by and acquiring those would be based on luck not counting the low pay of each gig.

Against her better judgement she stood up “Ok ok I'll at least come by and take the tour? I guess?” Mia responded wondering what she had gotten herself into but maybe this would be an opportunity to travel, see new things and figured herself out.

“Delightful, let's head to our branch in the city and as a bonus it's nice and cool in there.” AS-179 lead the way.

The two had entered the M.A.I.D Anaheim complex passing through the rows of AdminSystem staff at the reception who signed them in pointing towards the elevators.

Inside the shiny silver lift AS-179 inserted her keycard as it started to move downwards “According to our background check your birth name was...ahh wonderful.” She smiled going through the files she had on hand.

Mia felt a little uneasy “Is that gonna be an issue?” She cut in

“Not at all, Maid is a very inclusive company like most others and it's rare to find any corporation these days that isn't, well except maybe VD Sports but the less said about them the better.” AS-179 sighed.

The elevator made a beep sound as the doors opened somewhere below the building as the two entered into a large hall of silver with blueish lighting “As part of creating a more high trust society it is of benefit that people are comfortable in their own skin or we would have conflicts during the conditioning state.” She mumbled.

Mia followed closely behind as AS-179 lead her on “Conditioning state? What do you mean by that?”

The office lady continued to tap the glow pen on her device as she walked onwards “Oh with any augmented training it is best the subject is comfortable and aligned with who they are. After all we believe divisions are something that should be scorned to put it within more fiery terms.”

A door slid upwards as they walked into the next hallway, a group of woman with long black hair flowing hair, what appeared to be frilly officer style uniforms in black with white and blue trims watched them pass by. A detail that Mia picked up on was the translucent blue eyewear almost like an extra layer upon the skin

They took a right turn as she ran her keycard along the door panel as it slid open “Come on inside and we can talk about a contract for you.” AS-179 smiled as she signaled with her hands towards a chair that had 'SecurityTech' written on it.

Mia took a seat as AS-179 took a cannister out and filled two glasses with a clear water with a strange blue tint under the light as she slide one glass across the table “You must be thirsty after being out in the sun all day, drink up.” She smiled.

She was parched as she could not help but pick up the glass and throw half of the water down her throat “Thank you, god I've not had anything to drink all morning.” She gasped.

Judging by everything Mia had observed on this level, it seemed to be a facility for some form of corporate security but the uniforms where unconventional by most standards she had assumed “I don't know if I was a bit hasty with all this but want to go around doing a bunch of imperialist crap and stuff you know? Sure piloting mobile armors is tempting and I could use the money...”

The office lady took out a remote as she turned some low volume pop music on in the background which hummed away with an almost bubbly feeling to the sound “I get exactly what you mean and I want you to know we're really swell when you get to know us.” AS-179 reassured.

Typing away on her touch screen she maintained that confident smile “Have you ever read the Analects? The sayings of Confucius, in fact it's on our authorised reading list at the company, you see we believe virtue is important and part of our company outlook here at Maid.”

Mia felt more relaxed as the music in the background removed any possible tension from the interview “Sounds a bit old fashioned, can't say I've read much of that kind of stuff, more a comics person.” She chuckled.

The AdminSystem girl pulled up a contract on her touch screen handing it over to Mia along with her glow pen “We believe firmly in virtue here at Maid, we believe a society that lacks virtue is a sick society. We have no desire to brutalize people, in fact we want to make the world better you see.”

It felt like such a sales pitch all that better world talk, every corpo would say the same thing but Mia Dical felt her back against the wall with the notion of leaving this place being the streets or ether crawling back to that awful living situation or worse her family.

She took the pen and signed her name on the contract.

179 escorted Mia through a smaller hallway towards a sector that had a more shiny white design with medical and scientific rooms to each side staffed by workers in white latex like skirted body suits with heeled boots “We have a DoctorTech ready for you; for the Ribbon.” AS-179 held out her arm to signal Mia to take the lead.

“A ribbon? Are they going to be putting me in frills?” Mia smirked.

AS-179 held her hands together in front of her own skirt “It's a special implant for SecurityTech and it's subdivisions. Unlike the standard NeuroTree chip this is more designed for military use.” She explained.

Uncertainty loomed over Mia “Chipped? I never agreed to get augged up or anything? Just what do you want to put inside my head?” She demanded as she was lead inside the medical room seeing two SecurityTech on reclining medical chairs with IV's and cables connected to their uniforms.

“You did sign the contract, chipping is standard for all employees here at Machine artificial intelligence development.” 179 coldly clarified.

She was having second thoughts, she wanted to back out “I don't want to do this anymore, I made a mistake so I'm sorry but I wanna leave!” Mia took one step back.

A group of armed woman with the same long black hair styles in those dresses creeped up behind the AdminSystem worker and Mia “Is the new sister being difficult Manager one seven nine?” The SecurityTech woman at the front asked.

She stepped to the side of the room elegantly “You know how it can be sometimes, you have the easy ones and of course the difficult ones.” AS-179 sighed.

Two of the security officers grabbed Mia as she struggled to force them off “Leave me alone! Fuck off, this is illegal!” She screamed.

The leader stepped forward “Maid, only has your best interests at heart.”

Mia tried to kick at one of them but their grip strength was powerful, she wondered if they where augmented in some way “Let me go, you fucking bitch!” Mia felt a rush of adrenaline but it wasn't enough.

Then a hiss as the medical worker pressed a syringe gun against her neck as everything went dark.

Time became a void, weightless, no sense of feeling.

Uniformity is conformity.

Protect M.A.I.Ds interests.

Spread M.A.I.Ds ideology.

Obey authority figures.

Lines of code, a dull light in the dark.

M.A.I.D

Ribbon OS 3.7
[Uniformity is conformity]
Checking firmware (---)
Downloading updates from Nexus.
Connecting to Lethe network...
Updates complete.

The darkness was shattered by bright daylight as Mia found herself with form once again, able to move, feel and touch as they noticed they where in some kind of boot camp. One that had a liminal quality to it as nobody else was around.

“Where am I? Can't remember how I got here, wherever this place is...” Mia muttered.

Before her a ring of blue and white text appeared in front of her as the code grew more thick forming into hundreds of small crystalline blue codes which jointed together before transforming into the shape of a girl with long white hair, a black officers dress with blue ribbons, black boots finished with a black beret bearing the M.A.I.D company logo.

She tilted her head offering a smile “Hi there, I'm Lethe! Seems you've had a traumatic onboarding experience so I'm here to help.”

There was a tingling sensation all around Mia, something sticky hugging her form but as she touched her body it felt normal “I feel funny, my skin is crawling with something!” She gasped.

Lethe leaned forward as she manifested a small holographic panel in front of her “That would be the M.A.I.D Re-sorting weave that have been connected around your neck in the physical world.” The AI construct told her.

Did they drug her? Was this some kind of simulation? The thought of what this company was doing to Mia's body right now terrified her.

“It's an impressive piece of technology programmed with smart nanites, once connected and brought online they spread over your flesh disintegrating clothing while generating your uniform, which is not all they do!” The AI boosted as it continued on.

SecurityTech is arm of M.A.I.D

Your name is S/T-821

Protect the interests of the company...

Eliminate threats to M.A.I.Ds agenda!

Mia gripped her head trying to mentally resist the words being drip fed into her head like sticky risen that grew harder by the moment “Stop it, stop it, make it stop already!!” She shouted out.

The AI just kept going with it's lecture as if enjoying the sound of her own voice “The nanites can also interface with your implant to install augmentation frameworks, regulate blood, cells, install battlefield knowledge and regulate stress levels. Re-sorting Weaves are often used for fast tracking new AdminSystem employees or SecurityTech personal such as yourself, oh oh.”

Voices, the voices kept bombarding her mind, eating away at memories, replacing them with orders, ideological mandates “I'm Mia Dical! I'm S T...Please stop it!” She screamed out.

Lethe manifested right in front of her, her hands resting on Mias face as their eyes locked, those cold blue eyes “Nobody ever cared for you out there, your parents where awful, your so called friends only cared about being right and you would have rotted out there on the streets if you never came to us, you'll find all this is for the best S/T-821.” Lethe spoke her truth.

Everything was memories, revisiting them before they where deleted permanently along with everything that was Mia Dical.

Your name is S/T-821

Your name is S/T-821

Your name is S/T-821

Your name is S/T-821

Your name is S/T-821

S/T-821 had been inside this construct, this boot camp for a long time. Through in the physical realm only a single hour had passed, the perception of time was a remarkable process Lethe found and how easy it was to extend to enable proper training of difficult subjects.

The DoctorTech observed the three SecurityTech assets in the reclining medical chairs as the third and final ones uniform had solidified “Looks like she is finally taking well to the conditioning process, splendid.” The white haired doctor noted.

A heavy sound tapped along the foot, metal hitting metal as a silver skinned cyborg entered the medical processing room alongside AS-179 who was taking down some notes with her beloved pen.

Standing taller than the others, the cyborg had an almost androgynous angelic look to him, bearing heavy white and silver armor “A new sister joins us, I have a good feeling about her.” The Angelic machine commanded a serine voice.

The AdminSystem lady checked her documents on her portable terminal “S/T-821 has been assigned to MechOps, after the processing is complete we'll have her shipped out to the Deimos facility for intensive VR training, cybernetic enhancement then piloting field training.”

All the girls in the chairs looked the same.

Same long flowing black hair.

The same uniforms, the frills, the armored dresses.

Almost like dolls.

The angelic cyborgs silver hand gently creassed S/T-821's cheek “I shall be following your journey very closely, sister.”